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This blog will mainly focus on crime in and around Southwest Missouri....Winner Of Springfield Blogger's Association: ROOKIE BLOG OF THE YEAR 2009--WINNER News or Current Events Blog Of The Year 2010
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The alleged mastermind in the plot to murder Rusty and Becky Porter has been released from the Taney County jail after posting a half million dollar bond.A grand jury indicted Rusty Porter's uncle, Robert Lee Campbell, 68, of Willard for the Porters murders on December 19th. Court documents allege that Campbell put the plan to murder the couple in motion by “offering consideration to one or more persons to kill” them and “one or more persons accepted the offer.” Campbell lived next door to the house the couple vanished from in April of 2011.

After the couple vanished, court records filed in Greene County showed a heated dispute between Campbell, Rusty Porter and Campbell's son.In those Greene County documents, Rusty Porter wrote in papers filed for an order of protection against his uncle that he and his wife had been harassed and threatened by Campbell.

In the court papers dated March 21, 2011, Porter wrote "Robert Campbell drove by our driveway and yelled out his window ... and told me to watch myself you won't be around much longer."The next day, Campbell filed his own papers seeking an order of protection claiming it Rusty Porter who was threatening and harassing him saying, "I am old and got medical health problems."-

Rusty and Becky Porter

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About two weeks after the Porters vanished, 120 acres of land surrounding their home, including Campbell's property, was searched for clues in the couples disappearance.

Campbell wrote that he was afraid of Russell Porter because "I am old and got medical health problems."

The skeletal remains of the couple, who had each been shot in the head, were found three months after their disappearance in rural Taney County.

Two other defendant's have asked the court for a change of venue for their trials and it is believed that attorney's for Campbell, who is due back in court on February 7th, will make a similar motion.
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A change of venue for Dusty Hicks, of Walnut Grove was granted last month. A jury will be imported from another county to hear his case. He is due back in court on February 21st.The change of venue motion for Tony Lee Friend, will be taken up on January 17th. His son, Phillip Friend, is also due back in court on February 7th. All three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, felonious restraint and armed criminal action.

Windy Friend (mug shot TCSO)

Windy Friend, Tony Friend's wife, was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder. Court documents allege she helped facilitate the murders and cleaned up afterward. She is due back in court March 21st.